Coyote junior Tyler Frank competes in the high jump on Jan. 16 at the Dakota Realty Alumni Meet in the DakotaDome. Frank is tied for eighth all time for high jump in the USD record books. Max Tushla / The Volante

Coyotes take first in four events at Jim Emmerich Alumni Invitational

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After last week’s dominant performance at the Dakota Realty Alumni Meet, the USD men’s and women’s track and field teams headed north to Brookings to compete at the South Dakota State University Jim Emmerich Alumni Invitational on Saturday.

The Coyotes took first in four events Saturday: two in men’s and two in women’s.

Sophomore Gawain Williams, who won the 60 meter dash, has primed himself to become a young star on this year’s team. He keeps himself humble, however.

“I’m never one who is in the front, I’m always the one in the group,” Williams said.

With a strong belief in performing well as a unit, Williams strives to help his team by winning his events.

“Go for the win first,” he said. “The time will come.”

Other top men’s performers from this weekend included freshman jumper Joe Reagan, who finished runner-up in the long jump with a distance of 7.22 meters.

Freshman Alex Borchers’ efforts landed him at the top of the podium in the men’s 300 meter, finishing .02 milliseconds ahead of in state rival SDSU’s Traxton Priebe.

After a great first two meets to start the season, senior Katie Wetzstein said she wants to finish her USD career with a bang.

“With it being my senior year I’m just trying to do all the events and just really see what I can run in each one of them,” she said.

With a second place finish in the 3,000 meter, Wetzstein knows there’s still a lot of work to be done before the conference championship.

“We’ve definitely had good performances the first two weeks, but I definitely think we’ll be a lot better,” she said. “We should definitely be at our best during conference.”

Sophomore Shanice Cannigan’s 60 meter hurdle run put her in second with a time of 8.84 seconds. The other USD winner was freshman Alanisse Williams. Her 45.97 second 300 meter hurdle time put her just in front of freshman Haley Bruggeman, who had a time of 46.12 seconds.

As both teams look to get ready for February’s Indoor Summit League Championships, Lucky Huber, director of track and field & cross country, feels good about their futures.

“We are a well-rounded team and we can go after every event and be able to have someone in every event who can come in and compete for a conference title,” he said. “The team is getting ready to answer the challenge, there is no sitting back. They all know the other teams are getting better.”

The Coyotes are in action next in Minneapolis for the Jack Johnson Classic Jan. 29 and 30. In-conference rivals North Dakota State, South Dakota State and Northern Iowa will all be in attendance.

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Austin Klinghagen is a junior Sport Management at the University of South Dakota. He is a member of Beta Theta Pi and also involved in Sport Management Alliance. Austin also enjoys his time working and playing intramurals at the Wellness Center. Austin is from Katy, Tx.